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In what appeared to be a sign that the current passport crisis will have a solution in sight, the Attorney General has given green light for the government to initiate the process of calling for tenders for e-passports despite the ongoing court case, a Minister said yesterday.
The tender for the five million e-passports, awarded to Thales DIS Finland OY and its Sri Lankan partner, Just In Time (JIT) Technologies (Pvt) Ltd, is being challenged by the losing bidder Epic Lanka (Pvt) Ltd at the moment. The tender was awarded during the time of the last government.
This has created a long queue for passports since the currently available stock of N-series machine-readable passports (MRPs) is sufficient only till July 31, this year. The government purchased only 750,000 such copies based on a Cabinet decision taken during the time of the last government.
Public Security Minister Ananda Wijepala told Daily Mirror yesterday that the Attorney General was consulted on whether the government could proceed with the tender for e-passports despite the ongoing court case.
“The Attorney General instructed us in favour. However, we are yet to work out modalities in this regard,” he said.
Asked about the committee appointed by the Cabinet to recommend steps to resolve the passport crisis, he said it would submit its report to the next Cabinet meeting.
Once e-passports are secured, the necessity for chipless passports will not arise.
The Attorney General informed the Court of Appeal last month that the National Procurement Commission also submitted its inquiry report regarding the Cabinet decision to approve the purchase of 750,000 N-Series passports from two companies.
In its application, Epic Lanka alleged that Cabinet of Ministers of the former regime on September 2, 2024 has granted approval to procure 750,000 Nos. of Machine Readable Passports from Thales DIS Finland OY and Just In Time Technologies (Pvt) Ltd outside of the proper procurement procedure, circumventing the National Procurement Guidelines.